US right now is on the path of losing its dominance.

That may present an opportunity to develop international democracy, to replace the violent, hegemonic rule of any one nation.

We are all the addict, because we all want the relative luxuries, conveniences, and comforts of a “middle class,” or higher, modern life. I’m no exception. But, the relative good life that is afforded to many in the modern world is heavily connected to fossil fuels.

As living standards have increased over the past few centuries, so has fossil fuel use. And the connection between the two is not arbitrary. The relatively high living standards of a modern, middle class lifestyle require a relatively high amount of energy. Fossil fuels are very energy dense. We need energy, fossil fuels contain a lot of energy, it’s not terribly complicated.

A lot of people posit that a modern middle class lifestyle is possible without getting any energy from fossil fuels. That would be great if true, but it is a yet unproven hypothesis. It’s entirely possible that an end to fossil fuel use also means an end to at least some of the luxuries of modern living, especially at the very upper end.

But, honestly this might all be a moot point, because modern life also seems to be dependent on an infinite growth paradigm and infinite growth isn’t possible, regardless of the energy source. It’s possible that humans just aren’t capable of living sustainably at these scales and at these levels of advancement. Sustainability requires that there be such a thing as “enough,” but is there such a thing as enough for most people? I don’t know.

Macron referred to expected changes in Washington’s foreign policy, citing the need to reduce reliance on the United States for security.

As an American, I also urge Europe to reduce its reliance on the US, for security or anything else. You’re going to want to insulate yourselves as much as possible from my unbelievably stupid, and potentially very dangerous country.

I, personally, will never buy a Tesla. I would consider buying an EV, but never a Tesla.

Occidental says the captured carbon will be stored in rock deep underground, but its website also refers to the company’s use of captured carbon in a process called “enhanced oil recovery.” This involves pushing carbon into wells to force out the hard-to-reach remnants of oil — allowing fossil fuel companies to extract even more from aging oil fields.

Well, they have to sell the carbon they capture to make money. If you suck up carbon and put it underground, where’s your revenue stream? The ground ain’t paying you to stuff it full of carbon. These big vacuums ain’t free, they have to pay for them somehow.

China’s reported levels of respiratory infections are within the normal range… [HMPV is] not a new virus,” Harris said. “It was first identified in 2001. It’s been in the human population for a long time. It is a common virus that circulates in winter and spring.”

Source

Google’s temporary retreat on RISC-V is a good example of the kind of basic stumbling block that a new architecture faces on the road towards mainstream - the lack of a mature and unified ecosystem.

I think RISC-V is positioned well to be the preferred architecture for an open ecosystem. But that’s not necessarily going to help it compete. If RISC-V is ever able to compete with Arm it will be because some company developed a chip based on a proprietary implementation of RISC-V, that is able to outperform Arm based offerings in some key way. Proprietary is just more profitable than open, so that’s where the money is going to go, and you need money to compete.

That being said, I’m glad an open standard ISA like RISC-V exists.

I can’t remember the last time I played a game on Windows. Four or five years, maybe.

Yes, but F35s are implements of war, they have essentially no other civilian purpose. Advanced semi conductors, on the other hand, do.